Southern Democrats

The Southern Democrats are a faction of the US Democratic Party that are made up of Democratic politicians representing the southern United States. They were a reactionary political party, and they supported slavery, opposing reforms. The Southern Democrats made up the government of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, with former 1860 US presidential elections candidate John C. Breckinridge serving as Secretary of War for the CSA in the last few months of the war. Although they were defeated in the civil war, their popularity rose in the aftermath of the war, continuing to rise into the 20th century.

History
In 1828, the anti-federalist Democratic-Republican Party of the United States split into the liberal US Republican Party and the conservative Democratic Party, the latter of which split between the Democratic Party and the Southern Democrats. While the core Democratic Party was pro-military and conservative, the Southern Democrats were reactionary, jingoistic, and staunchly pro-slavery. They were represented by John C. Breckinridge in the elections of 1860, while Stephen A. Douglas represented the Northern Democrats; they faced the US Republican Party opponent Abraham Lincoln, a senator from Illinois. In the elections, Lincoln defeated Vice-President Breckinridge, and the acession of the anti-slavery Republicans to power led to eleven states in the south seceding to form the Confederate States of America. Breckinridge served as a senator in the Confederate States Congress, and in 1865 he served as Minister of War towards the end of the war. The Southern Democrats made up the majority of the Confederate States government, which was united by their pro-slavery sentiment. However, the Southern Democrats were defeated in April 1865 with the end of the Civil War, and the Confederate States was reunified with the rest of the United States.

However, their defeat in the Civil War did not stop their rise to power. In 1836, their popularity was only 4%; by 1868, during Reconstruction, their popularity rose to 8.2%, doubling since the end of the Civil War. The Southern Democrats and the US Socialist Party soon became rivals as both of them rose in percentage of seats in the upper house of the US Congress, and by 1882, the Southern Democrats had 12.4% of the upper house, while the Socialists had 10.3%. The Southern Democrats became the opposition party to the ruling Democratic Party, with the Republicans holding 11.5% of seats and the Democrats holding 65.8%. The Southern Democrats struggled to gain power in the upper house as the Democrats solidified their rule over the country, staying afloat amidst every new wave of elections and managing the country well. Under Democratic rule, several immigrants arrived in the country, and the United States economy boomed. The Democratic pro-war party had a militaristic approach to their policies, invading countries such as Brunei, Hawaii, and the Choson Empire (Korea). The Southern Democrats were the opposition party for the next several decades, but they were unable to wrest control of the government from the Democratic Party.